NINE HERBS CHARM
Nigon Wyrta Galdor
I was learning about nettle and stumbled upon the Nigon Wyrta Galdor, or the Nine Herbs Charm, and fell into a hole. This is the result of that tumble. The charm, also referred to sometimes as a spell or prayer, ends with instructions for making a companion salve to aid with healing. It blends mythology, medicine, and ritual to create a holistic form of healing. It’s nice to consider intertwining intention and words with medicine. Blending conscious awareness with emotion to help guide the process. The intentionality creates a sort of presence, bond, and commitment between the healer and patient. By combining intention with physical medicine this incantation can help to activate the herbs’ healing potential. This charm is repeated dozens of times, this repetition infuses the power of the plants with medicine, practice, and ceremony.
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Terms
-Wyrt = wort = herb
-Charm : common in folklore, and universal among humankind. Can be objects, texts, and oral traditions.
-Galdor : an Old English wound healing spell.
-Wōden : God of healing, wisdom, magic, and war. ‘Wōden’s day’ can be translate to Wednesday, making me reconsider the potential of Wednesdays.
-Wyrm : giant Germanic folklore snake-dragon symbolizing death, renewal, destruction, chaos, vengeance, and hoarding.
-Syncretism : the blending of different, often contradictory, beliefs, cultures, philosophies, or religions.
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The Nigon Wyrta Galdor, known as the Nine Herbs Charm, was written around 1000 AD. It was discovered in the Lacnunga, translated as “Remedies,” an Anglo-Saxon document containing a collection of hundreds of treatments using medicinal plants, blessings, and prayers to heal. The herbs mentioned in the charm are nine sacred herbs which were thought to have been given to humans by Wōden, the God of healing. The speaker of this charm is trying to defeat a wound involving infectious disease by invoking the aid of an army of nine plants. The speaker addresses each plant and calls to their experiences to defeat wyrm. Wōden is called upon to lead the herbal plants and attacks using his ‘wonder twigs,’ (which may be the herbs themselves) to cause the creature to split into nine portions each with a different coloured venom. The plants successfully defeat the venom and wyrm. Instructions follow the galdor to make a skin salve. The herbs are powdered, mixed with soap, made into a paste , and mixed with boiled fennel. The charm is to be sung three times over each of the nine herbs and the apple before preparation, as well as into the patient’s mouth, ears and wound.
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Symbols +
-The numbers three and nine repeat throughout the galdor. These numbers are frequently found in Germanic and Anglo-Saxon charms, folklore, and myth. Three is considered a perfect number representing completeness, stability, and harmony. Nine is a multiple of three and is therefore considered three times more powerful than three, triple perfection.
-The Web of Wyrd : is a matrix of fate/destiny/interconnectedness. It is rooted in ancient Germanic and consists of three sets of three lines, totalling the number nine, numbers that echo throughout the Nine Herbs Charm. These lines can also be seen as twigs, representing the nine twigs of Wōden and/or nine herbs. There have been stories and mythology of women weaving as a means of producing wyrd-threads: a tapestry of fate woven by women. They chant and weave the wyrd of those who will fight in battle. This makes me excited about future wyrd learning and applying it to my textile and fibre practice as a form of connectedness.
-The poem includes the mention of seven worlds (seofun worulde). Seven worlds refers to a cosmological concept to describe the power of the herbs.
-The galdor mentions ‘the hanging lord’’ in the heavens. This could be referencing Christ or Odin or both. Christ, who was hung from a cross, and Odin, who hung from a tree, pierced by his spear, for nine nights. Both deities are associated with healing, hanging, sacrifice.
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THE NINE SACRED HERBS
Mugwort, Artemisisa vulgaris
Plantain, Plantago major
Lamb’s cress, Nasturtium officinalis
Betony, Stachys betonica
Chamomile, Anthemis nobilis
Stinging nettle, Utricia dioca
Crab apple, Pyrus malus
Chervil/parsley, Anthriscus cerefolium/caucalis —sometime interpreted as thyme or sweet cicely
Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare
Lay of the nine herbs
Be mindful, Mugwort, what you revealed,
What you established at the great proclamation
Una you are called, oldest of herbs,
you are strong against three and against thirty,
you are strong against poison and against onfliers [flying venoms]
you are strong against the foe who goes through the land.
And you, Waybroad [Plantain], mother of herbs,
open from the east, mighty within.
Over you chariots creaked, over you queens rode,
over you brides cried out, over you bulls snorted.
All this you withstood, and confounded.
So you withstand poison and flying venom,
and the foe who goes through the land.
Stune this herb is called, she grew on a stone,
she stands against poison, she attacks pain.
Stithe [hard] she is called, she confounds poison,
she drives out evils, she casts out poison.
This is the herb that fought against the worm,
this is strong against poison, she is strong against flying venoms,
she is strong against the foe who goes through the land.
Rout you now, Attorlathe [Venomloather], the less the more,
the more the less until there be a remedy for him against both.
Remember you, Maythe [Camomile], what you revealed,
what you accomplished at Alorford,
that never for flying venom did he yield life
since for him a man prepared Maythe for food.
This is the herb that is called Wergule.
This a seal sent over the sea ridges,
as a remedy against the harm of another poison.
[Two herbs, chervil and fennel, are missing]
Lay of the Nine Twigs of Woden
These nine go against nine poisons.
A worm came crawling, he wounded nothing.
Then Woden took nine glory-twigs [wuldor tanas]
smote then the adder that it flew apart into nine (parts).
There apple and poison brought it about
that she never would dwell in the house.
Chervil and Fennel, very mighty two,
these herbs he created, the wise Lord
holy in heaven when He hung;
He established and sent them into the seven worlds,
to the poor and the rich, for all a remedy.
She stands against pain, she assaults poison,
who has power against three and against thirty,
against enemy's hand and against great terror
against the bewitching of little/vile wights.
Now these nine herbs have power against nine evil spirits
[wuldorgeflogenum, "fugitives from glory"],
against nine poisons and against nine flying venoms:
Against the red poison, against the foul poison,
against the white poison, against the purple poison,
against the yellow poison, against the green poison,
against the dark poison, against the blue poison,
against the brown poison, against the crimson poison.
Against worm-blister, against water-blister,
against thorn-blister, against thistle-blister,
against ice-blister, against poison-blister.
If any poison flying from the east,
or any from the north . . . come
or any from the west over humanity.
Christ stood over the old ones, the malignant ones [?].
I alone know running streams
and the nine adders now they behold [?].
All weeds must now give way to herbs
the seas slip apart, all salt water,
when I this poison blow from you.
THE PREPERATION
Mugwort, waybroad open from the east, lamb's cress, attorlathe, maythe, nettle, crab-apple, chervil and fennel, old soap; work the herbs into dust, mix them with the soap and the apple juice. Work then a paste of water and of ashes; take fennel, boil it in the paste and beat with the [herbal] mixture when he applies the salve both before and after.
Sing the charm [galdor] on each of the herbs three times before he prepares them, and on the apple likewise. And let someone sing into the mouth of the man and into both his ears, and on the wound, that same charm [gealdor] before he applies the salve.
*taken from https://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/nineherbs.htm
_______________________A different translation
Remember, Mugwort,
what you brought to pass,
what you readied,
at Regenmeld.
You’re called Una, that most ancient plant.
You defeat three, you defeat thirty,
you defeat venom, you defeat air-illness;
you defeat the horror who stalks the land.
And you, Waybread, plant-mother!
You’re open to the east, yet mighty within:
Carts creaked over you, women rode over you,
over you brides bellowed, over you bulls snorted!
You withstood it all—and you pushed back:
You withstood venom, you withstood air-illness,
you withstood the horror who travels over land.
Now, this plant is called Stune, she who grows on stone:
She defeats venom, she grinds away pain.
She’s called Stithe, she who withstands venom;
she chases away malice, casts out pain.
This is the plant that fought against the wyrm.
She is mighty against venom, she is mighty against air-illness;
she is mighty against the horror who travels over land.
You, Venom-loathe, go now!
The less from the great,
the great from the less,
until for both he receives a remedy.
Remember, Chamomile,
what you brought to pass,
what you accomplished,
at Alorford,
that no one should lose their life to disease,
since for him Chamomile was prepared.
Finally, this plant is known as Wergulu,
who a seal sent over sea-ridges,
to aid against venom.
These nine plants defeat nine venoms!
A wyrm came slithering, and yet he killed no one,
for wise Wōden took nine glory-twigs
and smote the serpent,
who flew into nine parts!
There, apple overcame venom:
There, the wyrm would never find shelter.
Filleand Fennel, a most mighty pair!
The wise lord shaped these plants,
while he, holy, hung in the heavens,
he sent them from the seven worlds, seven ages of man,
for wretched and wealthy alike.
She stands against pain, she stands against venom,
she is potent against three and against thirty,
against a foe’s hand, against great guile,
against malice and bewitchment
from animal and spirit.
Now! May the nine plants do battle against nine glory-fleers,
against nine venoms and against nine air-diseases,
against the red venom, against the running venom,
against the white venom, against the blue venom,
against the yellow venom, against the green venom,
against the black venom, against the bluevenom,
against the brown venom, against the purple venom,
against wyrm-blister, against water-blister,
against thorn-blister, against thistle-blister,
against ice-blister, against venom-blister.
If any venom comes flying from the east,
or any comes from the north,
or any from the west over folk!
Christ stood over illness of every kind.
Yet I alone know water running
where the nine serpents guard.
Now, may all plants arise,
seas ebb, all salt water,
when I blow this venom from you.
Ingredients: Mugwort, Waybread open to the east, Lamb’s Cress, Venom-Loathe, Chamomile, Nettle, Sour-Apple-of-the-Wood, Fille, and Fennel. Old soap.
Prepare and apply the salve: Work these plants to dust, and mix them with apple mush. Make a paste of water and ashes. Take Fennel and mix the plant into the boiling paste. Bathe the wound with an egg mixture both before the patient applies the salve and after.
Sing the above galdor over each of the nine plants. Sing the galdor three times before the patient self-applies the salve, and sing the galdor three times on the apple. Sing the galdor into the patient’s mouth, sing the galdor into each of the patient’s ears, and—before the patient applies the salve—sing the galdor into the patient’s wound.
*taken from https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/nigon-wyrta-galdor#translations